With talks between Iran and the P5 +1 group countries – China, France, Germany,
Russia, the UK and the US – regarding Iran’s nuclear program set to resume in
Baghdad on Wednesday, Iran’s state-run press moved late on Tuesday to emphasize
the country’s claims of “peaceful” nuclear energy.
Late Tuesday evening,
the Islamic Republic Broadcasting Agency reported that Iran’s Atomic Energy
Organization (IAEO) had announced its nuclear experts had successfully supplied
the country’s Tehran-based research reactor with “two batches of homemade
fuel.”
According to IRBA, the process “aims to ensure continued
production of radiopharmaceuticals and radioisotopes for the Tehran research
reactor,” and IAEO said it aimed to continue to deliver two packages
monthly.
Throughout Tuesday, the Iranian media focused on Israel’s
pre-summit stance, on reports that Russia and Western European countries might
offer different proposals at the talks, and IAEA chief Yukiya Amano’s
announcement that a deal with Iran over inspections was close.
Iran’s
state-owned Press TV accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of “bullying” the
P5 +1 countries when he declared on Monday that Israel would only accept a total
halt of Iranian nuclear enrichment. The Tehran-based news outlet slammed
Netanyahu’s position, and claimed Israel possessed “up to 400 nuclear
warheads.”
Meanwhile, on Tuesday afternoon Iran’s semiofficial Fars news
agency said Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine
Ashton, told its reporters on Tuesday that there were likely to be two proposals
offered at the Baghdad talks.
According to Fars, Western European states
planned to present a “new package” to Iran, different from that proposed by the
Russia, which it said indicated that P5 +1 members are divided on how to deal
with the Iranian nuclear issue.
While Fars’s Farsi-language site said the
content of the two different proposals remained unclear, its English-language
portal noted that Russia had previously called for a “step by step” resolution
to the dispute over Iran’s nuclear enrichment. Under a proposal put forward by
Russia in February, Moscow suggested that Iran freeze the number of centrifuges
for enrichment at current levels and place restrictions on centrifuge use, Fars
said.
Both Press TV and the Revolutionary Guardslinked Mashregh News
reported a speech by Iranian parliamentary chairman Ali Larijani, in which he
called on the P5 + 1 countries to “change their policies” toward Iran during the
Baghdad nuclear talks, and to “shun doubledealing.”
Meanwhile, Mashregh
reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak – whom it refers to as the “Zionist
Regime’s Minister of War” – had said Israel was willing to accept an Iranian
reduction in nuclear enrichment to 3.5 percent.
Israel’s official
position has always been that the Islamic Republic must end all its enrichment
activities, a stance Mashregh slammed as “irrational.”
Mashregh said it
had taken Barak’s comments from Yediot Aharonot and that his statements could be
interpreted as a compromise or as a new policy to justify military action
against Iran.
“The regime could claim that its efforts to achieve a deal
[with Iran] have been exhausted, and now military action is inevitable,”
Mashregh said.
Iran’s Tabnak website, which is closely associated with
Mohsen Rezaee, secretary-general of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council, cited
Rezaee as saying the P5 + 1 countries are prepared to give “concessions” to
Iran, and while those concessions may not be great, they would be the “first
step in the right direction.”
A former chief commander of the
Revolutionary Guards, Rezaee is currently on Interpol’s wanted list for his
alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos
Aires.
In Tuesday’s article, Rezaee said “steadfastness” of Iran’s
Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Iranian people are “bearing
fruit” and that with “careful negotiations,” Iran “can start to reap the first
fruits of that steadfastness.”
Meanwhile, Mashregh said Rezaee warned
that Israel is trying to make trouble ahead of the talks, “however, the ground
has been laid for Iran to gain points in the meeting, and we won’t give any
excuse not to achieve a positive outcome in the Baghdad
talks.”
Coincidentally, May 23 – the date of the nuclear talks in Baghdad
– is a highly significant date in the history of the Islamic Republic. On that
day, 30 years ago, Iranian forces tasted their first victory in their war with
Iraq when they retook Khorramshahr using waves of Revolutionary Guards and Basij
fighters, in an operation dubbed “Beit al-Moqaddas” (Jerusalem).
In a
Tabnak article also on Tuesday, Rezaee said Iran’s enemies wanted war, and to
take Iran’s “confidence and dignity.”
“Our enemies wanted to crush and
humiliate us, but Khorramshahr’s liberation destroyed their hopes,” he said,
according to Tabnak.
Rezaee made his remarks as the Iranian army prepares
to stage extensive war-games on Wednesday, to mark Khorramshahr’s liberation and
to practice new asymmetric war tactics, according to Iran’s army commander
Brig.-Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan.
Rezaee also posed the rhetorical
question of whether “the Islamic Republic is more dangerous than tens of US and
Soviet nuclear bombs,” and said some countries, especially Israel, wanted to
upset Iran’s national resistance.
Iran’s official news agency, IRNA,
which is controlled by the country’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance,
was upbeat about the upcoming Baghdad talks in reports on Tuesday, but focused
on issues around the summit.
IRNA focused on Iraq’s role in the talks,
and said Baghdad would play a “major role in resolving regional
issues.”
The news agency cited Iran’s Supreme National Security Council
(SNSC) secretary and chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, who arrived in Iraq
Monday night, as saying that holding the talks in Iraq indicted the country’s
“peace, stability and security.”
IRNA reported that Jalili had held talks
with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on both regional and international
matters.